Chapter 12
OLIVIA
I stepped into the shower, enjoying the water pressure beating down on me, and ran through the list of what I wanted to accomplish pre-flight. I’d fly Gio back to Rome, and then I’d disappear.
But if I was going to be free of the Abramos, that meant his bodyguard would go, too.
Ethan.
My face heated hotter than the water as my thoughts drifted to last night. Holy mother of god, the sex had been amazing. It had shaken me, too. I wasn’t into cuddling, or tenderness, or intimacy, and yet I’d felt powerful disappointment when he’d had to leave.
He hadn’t wanted to go, either. Besides telling me that, the reluctance was clear on his face as he’d slipped from my bed. So much for finishing the business between us.
I abandoned the pre-flight checklist. He was all I could think about this morning.
What was Ethan doing right now? Probably preparing for the return to Rome. Had our night together silenced the distraction, or had it intensified the same way it had for me?
I had enough desire for him to fill an entire airplane hangar. Not just for sex. I wanted to know what he was hiding. Wanted to know who he really was. Just the name wasn’t enough.
God, what was wrong with me? No strings attached. That was how I survived. That crash on the mountainside hadn’t broken me, but it left me too damaged to offer anything real in return. How had last night reduced me to this?
I lingered under the shower for a while, not wanting to go back into the bedroom and see the bed, the reminder of what had happened there last night. I slipped into the thin, waffle-textured robe hanging by the shower, grabbed the blow dryer, and dried my hair.
When I was finished, I set it on the counter—
It clattered to the ground.
An enormously tall man lingered in the doorway, and his eyes hinted at the struggle going on behind them. The struggle between Ethan and Nathan.
“I could’ve sworn I locked my door,” I said.
“You did.” He stepped inside the bathroom, pulling the door closed behind him.
The urge to kiss him was so strong, so abrupt, it roared through me like an engine on takeoff. But somehow I managed to contain myself and pretend he didn’t have that effect. Ethan picked the hairdryer up and set it back on the counter, his dark and fascinating eyes evaluating me.
“I did knock,” he said, steadily approaching until there was no space left between us, and we were chest to chest. Wait—not really. I was staring at the center of his chest, and he had to be looking down at the top of my head because he was so tall.
My gaze worked its way up to his face, and it came from me as an anxious whisper. “Did you need something?”
“Giovanni sent me to tell you we’re going back to Rome. I need to know that, as soon as we land, you’ll stop working for the Abramos.”
I had no job lined up, nowhere to go unless I wanted to go home, but . . . “Of course. I’m not stupid.”
“I didn’t mean to imply that.” The hard angle along his jaw sharpened as the muscle beneath it flexed. Like he was clenching his teeth. “We won’t see each other again.”
I swallowed hard, feeling like I was in a free-fall as I stood trapped inside his intense stare.
“I know,” I said quietly. A long moment passed, and he didn’t move. “Was there something else you needed?”
The tension between us had suffocated all the oxygen in the room. His gaze hardened, as if his mind was set. “Yeah. But we don’t have much time.”
“Time for what?”
His strong hands tugged at the belt holding my robe closed, jerking the knot free, and cool air washed over my damp, naked skin when it fell open.
Oh. My. God. His lips crushed against mine, hard and urgent, and his hands slid inside the robe.
There was no need to think. I wanted this. How could I not?
It was as if someone had given him a manual to my body because he knew exactly where and how to touch me. The coarse skin of his palms dragged deliciously over my breasts, across my back, and slid down to grab a handful of my ass.
He squeezed roughly, possessively, and I sighed into his relentless kiss.
But the hand on my bottom had a purpose, and that was to help lift me. So he could seat me on the long counter beside the sink and stand between my parted legs.
Oh, I liked this, the added height. It meant I didn’t have to crane my neck quite as much to kiss him. I filled his mouth with my tongue while his hands skimmed over the tops of my thighs.
“What are we doing?” I murmured. His lips left a damp trail down the side of my neck, and he pressed me back to lean against the mirror.
“Right now?” His voice was low. “I’m kissing you. Do you mind?”
“No, but I meant—”
Words stopped when his mouth ventured lower, and his tongue traced my nipple. Need tightened in my core, sharp as if he’d plunged in a knife. His hot mouth continued to descend, traveling over my ribs, down over my fluttering stomach, and my breath came and went in huge gulps of air.
I knew his final destination, and wonderful anticipation flooded through me. Lower. Almost there.
He teased me, hovering over where I most wanted him to use his mouth, and it forced me to remind him, “I thought you said you didn’t have a lot of time.”
The half-smile on his lips was wicked and sexy. “Are you telling me to get to work?”
I wasn’t embarrassed to ask for what I wanted. “Yes.”
My hands tangled in his soft hair, guiding his head between my thighs. Heat poured through my body when he lowered his mouth and tasted me.
A manual. That was what he definitely had.
Every caress of his tongue, each grazing brush of his lips sent an electric charge surging through me. “Oh, my God.” My grip in his hair tightened involuntary. “That feels so fucking good.”
His response was to kneel and pull one of my knees up over his shoulder, deepening his intimate kiss.
It didn’t matter that it was awkward half-leaning back against the mirror with my chin in my chest. My focus was on the climb toward the pleasure Ethan was giving me.
This enigma of a man—God, how I wanted him.
When my moans got out of hand, he pulled back so his warm breath washed over my skin. “You seem to like that.”
It was annoying that he’d stopped but it only turned me on more. “You seem to know what you’re doing.”
“Do I?” He kissed the inside of my thigh, and I stifled a groan.
“Yeah. So why the hell did you stop?”
His smile was corrupt, and it set me on fire.
Hell, he set every inch of me on fire when his lush tongue returned to me.
The tip of it fluttered against my clit, making my legs shake.
His hands gripped my thighs, and I stared at the erotic scene playing out in front of me.
I wished I could take a picture of this moment.
Him on his knees, my bathrobe hanging loose off one shoulder, my chest heaving with heavy breaths.
My skin tingled in anticipation of my arriving orgasm. The crescendo inside me was building into something so powerful I worried I might rattle right off the edge of the counter.
I was about to burst, any second now—
Ethan shot to his feet and abruptly pulled me down. I nearly fell, stumbling on my weak legs as his hands struggled to close my robe.
No, my mind screamed. What was this? He wiped my arousal from his lips, his face alert and anxious.
“If it’s Gio, don’t let him in.” His voice was so quiet, it was barely a hiss. “Tell him you’re sick, whatever. But he can’t come in.” His expression was deadly serious. “We’re both fucked if he finds me here.”
The second knock on the exterior door was louder as he cinched the belt on my robe closed. I’d been much too focused on Ethan’s mouth for the first knock to register, but this one I heard. Which meant I was going to have to leave this room and go answer my front door.
My knees shook, not from fear, but as a reaction to being brought to a screeching halt. Inside, my mind continued to protest as I marched out into the main room.
“Phillip,” I said when I pulled the door open, announcing who it was.
“Sorry to bother you, but Mr. Abramo has to return to Rome immediately.”
“Yes, Nathan informed me already.” I did my best to keep my breathing steady. Hopefully, my face wasn’t too flushed. “Have you notified the rest of the crew?”
“I’ll go to their cabin next. The flight plan is ready for your registration. Mr. Abramo would like to leave within the hour.”
I glanced at the clock. “That shouldn’t be a problem, thank you.”
Once he was gone, I locked the door and shuffled back to the bathroom, filled with anxiety.
Ethan remained where I’d left him, although the alarm was gone from his expression. Now his long, angular face was unreadable. Nerves made me vibrate.
“It was Phillip,” I eked out.
“I heard.”
The sex in the air had dissipated, and it was awkward now, given what we’d been doing a minute ago. Like last night, he stared as if waiting for me to do something, but my mind was completely blank.
“Can I ask you something?” he said. “Why did you kiss me that first night?”
He was such a puzzle. Did he think I was, too? “Because I thought you were hot, and I wanted to get in your pants.”
He blinked back his surprise, and then his gaze heated. “Come here.”
It was soft yet commanding, and my breathing went shallow. “We don’t have time.”
But I obeyed, going to him.
He reached for me, cradled my face with both hands, and kissed me, deeply. His mouth possessed mine and made my legs go boneless.
“Dangerous—” I mumbled as I kissed him back.
“I thought you liked danger.” It sounded like a challenge.
“I do.” It made me feel something, like I was alive.
The kiss ended with his hands sliding away, but his intense expression continued to burn as he looked at me. Behind the intensity, there was something in his eyes. Longing?
“Olivia.” It looked like he was searching for what to say.
“Ethan.”
Hearing his name must have been what he needed. “If I had my way, last night would happen again, only I’d get to take my time with you. But it’s about to get a lot more complicated for me.”
My curious brain wouldn’t shut up. “Complicated how?”
“Gio’s brother is dead.”
I knew that Constantine, Vitale’s younger son, had gone missing, but everyone talked as if he was wild and selfish. Like this disappearance was normal behavior for him. But he was dead? “How? Did Renzo tell you that?”
Doubt flashed in his eyes. Whatever he wanted to say gave him tremendous pause. I brushed my fingertips down his defined jaw, and they bristled on the stubble there. The retreat back into the cold Nathan persona had already begun, and I wanted just a few more seconds with Ethan.
I kissed him. Every bit of tenderness and intimacy between us was like a pocket of turbulence.
He lifted his head when the kiss ended, looking like he’d hit his own patch of turbulence. Stunned and disarmed. “No,” he said, “Renzo didn’t have to tell me. I know Constantine Abramo is dead,” his voice was uneasy, “because I’m the one who killed him.”